Kansas City Disney building is marked for demolition

A building at 2449 Charlotte St. on Hospital Hill, former home of theKansas City Slide Co., where A. Vern Cauger hired Disney in 1920, wasbought last year by the University of Missouri-Kansas City, which plans todemolish the site to make way for a life-sciences facility and parking lot.Disney worked for more than two years at the Charlotte address, helpingproduce slides and one-minute films shown as advertisements in movietheaters. He worked alongside other Kansas City artists who, like him,would later rise in the California animation industry including FrizFreleng, who became an important animation director at Warner Bros., and UbIwerks, who had a big hand in the early Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphoniesseries. Disney remained at the Kansas City Slide Co. until May 1922.University officials say the Kansas City Slide Co. building has lesshistoric value than other buildings in the area with Disney connections,and UMKC is preparing to seek demolition bids. Although it is unclear whenthe structure will fall, the building will soon follow Disney's firststudio in Los Angeles on Hyperion Avenue which made way for a grocery storein the early 1960s.